San Francisco offers free Wi-Fi along Market Street

December 16, 2013, 3:58PM

12/16/2013

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is offering free Internet access along one of its main thoroughfares.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1gBNfFY) that the city-owned wireless network was running last week ahead of its formal rollout on Monday. It covers a three-mile stretch of Market Street from Castro Street to the Embarcadero.

City officials say it cost about $500,000 after donations from two companies, Ruckus Wireless, of Sunnyvale, and Layer42 Networks, of Mountain View.

It comes as the city is moving forward with plans to bring free Wi-Fi to San Francisco's public parks in partnership with Google. City officials had proposed citywide wireless Internet access in 2007, but that plan fell apart amid concerns about a contract with EarthLink and Google.